Follow Me
by Melody Bellerose
Summary: Even after his death, Gene continued to watch over his little brother. R&R please.


When I first died, following my brother around was a given for me. I could still communicate with him if he would peer in to a mirror or pull at my spirit with his PK and then mentally verse with me. So I can honestly say that the only thing that changed about my brother when I died was that he was incredibly sad, all of the time.

Noll had always been a reserved creature. All of the girls in high school thought he was just a 'dark soul who needed to be loved' but that wasn't the case. Noll genuinely enjoyed peace and quiet, though, things never seemed to work out for him like he wanted it to.

When he told our parents about wanting to go to Japan, I made sure to pull him in to a dream where I could tell him how much of an idiot I thought he was. He tried to play it off as finally putting me to rest but I knew as well as he did that my spirit was tied to his and I would be following him around for the rest of his life.

I expected him and Lin to go around Japan until they found the lake. I expected them to do it alone and in the solitude that both of them liked.

I did not expect Mai Taniyama.

From the moment I watched my younger brother scare her and her friends, I knew she was different. Not because she was obviously much cuter than either of her friends, but because when I brother smiled at them, she was the only want to narrow her eyes in suspicion.

 _Oh yeah. I like this girl._ I thought.

The next morning, she smashed one of Noll's precious cameras and sprang Lin's ankle, causing Noll to have no choice but to enslave the poor girl, and let me tell you, I was beginning to love this girl.

However, when my brother handed her his bullshit and she threw it right back in his face with a haughty smirk and an adorable laugh, I knew she would turn my brothers world on its axis.

She took me by complete surprise when she came up with 'Naru the Narcissist' but it made me laugh harder than was sane and pissed my brother off beyond repair until it turned in to a nickname that the entire band of merry misfits called him— even Lin! Then it began to embarrass him until I mentioned it was kind of like a nickname that a girlfriend would give her boyfriend that all of his friends eventually started using. He cursed me out and glared, however, he was suddenly okay with the nickname.

After the first case ended, I knew there was no way he would leave the orphaned Mai Taniyama alone, so I wasn't the least bit surprised when he called and hired her as his assistant. The pay was way higher than normal (nearly twenty-five dollars an hour) and she made the best tea Noll had ever tasted.

At first, he tried to play it off that she was an orphan that needed help, then he tried to say it was because of her tea or her organization skills. I knew better. It was because she was a ray of happiness that just brightened up his sad world.

I noticed the soft light around her after watching her with my brother. The more I hung around her, the more I noticed it. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that Mai's powers had been dormant until Noll's overwhelming abilities slowly made them trickle out of her.

This girl was going to be an incredibly powerful psychic one day, which is why I had to start her off somewhere. I helped her on cases when I could and I let her think I was Noll.

And I watched her fall in love with my brother.

It wasn't something that happened one day. It was gradual. My brothers narcissism pissed her off but it was the side that he rarely showed to anyone that made her fall. I watched it happen. He was a real arse to her sometimes but other times, he was so sweet to her that it was hard to believe that this was my baby brother.

Then he found my body and she confessed and I watched my baby brother shove her feelings back down her throat after realizing that I had been appearing in her dreams. I was so mad at him that I was just about to give him a piece of my mind until I watched him hand her the key to the SPR office and told her to hang on to it for him. I also watched as he handed her a really old picture of him and I, telling her that it was useless.

She didn't know it, but that was the picture Noll carried around everywhere. It was his favorite picture of us, even though he would never admit it if you asked him.

After my body was finally buried, I didn't pass, just like we both knew would happen. After letting him tell himself that he wasn't in love with her for a few months and letting him work himself in to the hospital, I finally pulled him in to a dream and told him in no uncertain terms that if he didn't go back to Japan, open up SPR, and confess to Mai, I was going to go follow our mum around for the rest of eternity.

Surprisingly, he did exactly as I said. Mai was very surprised when he showed up on her doorstep at six AM on a Monday and asked for the key back. She had just graduated high school so she was home, sleeping, and she answered the door in some ridiculously short shorts and a huge t-shirt. Her hair was a mess, her face was greasy, she had eye boogers in the corners of her eyes, and her eyes were bloodshot.

But she smiled when she saw him and asked for ten minutes to get dressed. She would accompany him back to office. He walked in to her apartment and sat on her old, beat up couch. She gave him some tea and excused herself while the fattest, fluffiest cat I've ever seen in my life (or otherwise) plopped down on the couch, glaring at him. Noll, of course, glared back, to which I swear the cat grinned and then climbed on Noll's lap, successfully getting orange cat hair all over his black assemble.

Mai came back out of her room to see my brother sitting, drinking his tea, staring the animal. She sighed the cats name (Stephan) and pick him up, letting him jump on the floor. She apologized for it but she didn't realize that Noll absolutely loved cats. He always had. They were quiet, like him.

So Noll opened up the SPR office once again, Mai took over the assistant job after Lin trained her for it and they began to take a steady flow of cases.

The entire time, I watched my brother fall more and more in love with Mai Taniyama, until eventually, one day they were fighting at the office. They were alone; everyone else was out and about while the two workaholics were cooped up in the office. Whatever they were fighting about was stupid and I was highly amused as little Mai went toe to toe with my brother. However, this fight was different because they continuously got closer to one another as the insults were flying. Noll called her an idiot and Mai called him stupid, to which Noll responded by grabbing both sides of her face and practically devouring her lips. It eventually led to angry sex, which I left them alone to do.

Couple days later, and Mai hadn't returned to work since after leaving from having sex with my brother. Of course, I questioned him about. He was reluctant to tell me at first, but I would be too if I would have told the girl I'm so obviously in love with that it was a mistake and wouldn't happen again.

He was surprised when I didn't chew him out like he was apparently expecting. He questioned me about it so I just shrugged and looked him in the eye, "I'm not the one that just ruined my relationship with Mai. She still smiles when she sees me. Wonder what she'll do when she sees you?"

The next morning, Noll went to her apartment. She opened the door, recognized him and tried to slam it in his face. He caught the door edge and forced his way in. Before he would even say anything, Mai socked him in the gut. He grunted and fell over.

I lost my mind. I was laughing so hard that I could literally feel my lungs burning, which was unusual, considering I was dead.

Eventually, Noll picked himself up, and admitted that he deserved it. Mai smacked him in the face— or tried to, he caught her hand and glared at her, "You're pushing it now."

"Let me go and get out of my house, Davis." She tried to jerk away but to no avail, my brother was a lot stronger than he looked.

I realized just how pissed she was when she didn't call him by the nickname she'd given him. He obviously did too because he flat out told her, "No. I'm going to talk and you are going to shut that pretty mouth and listen."

Mai turned bright red at the use of the word 'pretty', which was obviously what my brother had intended. She plopped down on her couch in her sweat pants and oversized sweater while Stephan immediately climbed on top of her, glaring at Noll for upsetting his mistress.

Noll began to tell her about our family. How our father was ridiculously in love with our mother and how she was ridiculously in love with him as well. Our adoptive parents were most certainly in love and every one could hear and see it.

"I know what love is, Mai. I watched them for most of my life and I assumed that's how everyone's love was. Loud, vocal and so sweet that it was sickening. I don't want to do that, Mai." He ran a hand through his black locks, "I don't want to fondle you in public, and I don't want to kiss you randomly, and I definitely to not want to tell you how much I absolutely adore you as loud as I possibly can. So I assumed it was just some type of fleeting emotion on my part and that after we had sex it would go away."

His eyes connected with hers and she answered for him, "But it hasn't." He nodded and she sighed, "Naru, not all love has to be loud and obnoxious." She stood and went stand in front of him, "Love is just love. It doesn't always have to be an exploding type of love that every one can see, but it can be more like a sunrise. Soft, calming. It can make you feel safe and secure, and it can brighten up your world."

My brothers' arms went around her waist, pulling the girl to him as he whispered, "You brighten up my world every time I see you smile, or laugh, or make me tea."

Mai threw her head back in a laugh, before smiling at him, "And you brighten up mine with your quiet worry for me and your soft protectiveness. Don't think I didn't notice, Naru."

"I'm sorry." He sighed, "I didn't mean what I said."

She grinned, "I forgive you." Then she kissed him and I had to leave again while they once again had sex.

I watched them work through a million more cases with Bou-san, Ayako-san, Yasuhara-kun, John-san, Masako-san and on occasion, Madoka and Lin. I watched Mai have five more near-death experiences and Noll have at least ten.

I watched my parents meet Mai and immediately fall in love with her endearing personality.

I watched my brother buy an engagement ring and watched him take six hours to decide on one. I watched him take nearly a year to work up the courage to propose and watched him rush Mai to plan a wedding so that he could finally call her his.

I watched Mai look at the positive mark on her pregnancy test and watched her cry in glee right before my brother walk in and began to immediately freak out to see his beloved wife be crying. I watched him shed tears of happiness with her and spin her around when he finally noticed the pregnancy test.

I watched my two nieces and three nephews born in under ten years. They were all very close and none of them were twins. I watched them all grow up to be successful adults with thriving careers in business, music, teaching, and the paranormal.

I watched Mai and Noll grow old together and never stop loving each other through it all.

I watched Mai die of breast cancer, and then I watched Noll die of old age. I watched every one mourn their deaths.

Finally, I see them appear in front of each other. Immediately they're wrapped up in each other's embrace. It had only been six years since they'd seen each other, after all.

"Hey you two!" I tell, catching their attention from the pearly which gates I'm standing in front of.

"Gene?" They call in unison.

I grin as they make their way over to me. Mai hugs me with out question and I fist bump my brother.

"Where are we?" Mai questions, folding herself in to Noll's side.

"It's very warm, and I feel at peace." Noll analyzes in his typical nature, "We must have floated upwards when we died and came to this place." He turns to Mai, "But why are we here at the same time?"

Mai shrugs but I answer, "Well we couldn't very well let her enter with out you by her side. After all, you two have done the world heaps of good, but you did it together."

"We?" Noll questions.

"The rest of the guardian angels." I smirk at their astonished faces, "Oh come on. You two knew I was there."

"Well yeah, but our guardian angel? Come on, Gene. That isn't realistic." Mai's eyes are bright with disbelief.

"Well you better come to terms with it because I only have a little time before I have to go back down to earth to watch over the kids." I chuckle at their faces, "I've been reassigned now that you two are dead."

"Well, uh," Mai's eyes are wide, "Okay then."

Noll eyebrows furrow, "You're going to be watching over our kids?" I grin and nod, and he relaxes, his face content, "I'm fine with that."

I laugh, "You don't really have a choice. Now, you two ready?"

They glance at each other, the love shining out of their eyes as they smile, then turn to me and say in unison, "We're ready."

"Follow me."


End file.
